Semantic organisation and handedness: Mixed-handedness is associated with more diffuse activation of ambiguous word associates

Abstract

Research indicates that there are individual differences in the flexibility and ease with which one retrieves and uses concepts stored in memory. Based on prior research suggesting that mixed-handedness is associated with greater cognitive flexibility, it was hypothesised that mixed-handers have access to a relatively diffuse associative network, where link strengths for closely related and distantly related concepts are not as disparate as in the case of strong-handers. This idea was explored using ambiguous words for stimuli, as ambiguous words are known to have both strong (concepts related via dominant meaning) and weak associates (concepts related via subordinate meaning). Consistent with the prediction, mixed-handers showed equal ease in accessing both strongly and weakly related concepts. In Experiment 1 mixed-handers exhibited equivalent priming for dominant and subordinate associates, while strong-handers exhibited priming for dominant associates only. In Experiment 2 ratings of strength of association for dominant versus subordinate associates were examined. Mixed-handedness was associated with lesser disparity of dominant and subordinate association ratings.

Keywords:

• Semantic networks
• Semantic priming
• Handedness
• Lexical ambiguity
• Ambiguous words
• Cerebral dominance
• Lexical decision
• Right hemisphere

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors wish to thank Andrew Geers for suggesting the rating task used in Experiment 2. Preparation of this manuscript was supported in part by grants from the National Science Foundation (#03 18239, #06 20094). Portions of this research were previously presented at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society.